Call centers are frequently used by businesses and other facilities to answer incoming calls and route calls to the appropriate asset, person, department, etc. Call centers reduce overhead by using automated systems to provided caller services wherever human assistance is not required. For example, when a caller dials into a call center, the caller may be prompted with a series of menu choices from which to choose. Choices are often affirmed by pressing a corresponding number button on a telephone key pad, and recently also by speaking the appropriate option.
It is common for call centers to employ queuing systems whereby callers are stacked in a queue on a first-in, first-out basis. Automated systems may be used to collect information from the user, thus speeding up the actual person-to-person contact, typically the most expensive component of a customer/employee interaction for an organization. For example, if a caller dials into their credit card issuer's call center, they are often prompted to enter their credit card number before being able to access other services. In addition to using this credit card number to provide services to the customer—account balances, last payment made, payment due, etc.—when the caller is ultimately connected to a person, that person may be automatically provided with the caller's credit card number or any other supplied information.
A problem with call centers is that because the interaction between the call center and the person calling is often controlled by computer software as well as some human control, it is not uncommon for a caller to become disconnected. Also, a caller may navigate to a point in a menu tree structure of the call center menu that requires the caller to hang up or become disconnected. In some contexts, such as repair persons, installers or other diagnosticians, it may be necessary to make multiple successive calls into a call center that are all related to a single incident, installation, repair. etc. Having to re-input information is wasteful to the caller and may cause unnecessary call center resources to be utilized, and thereby wasteful to the organization that maintains the call center.